. >> reporter: no one would believe it because under armour, based in baltimore, maryland, has one of those american fairy tale stories that is almost too much of a fairy tale. in 1995 as a mediocre college football player at the university of maryland, kevin plank decided the cotton t-shirts he was wearing at practice were too sweaty. >> what made you think -- who cares about a cotton t-shirt that you sweat through? >> i was pretty short and pretty slow. my incentive was giving me just that little edge and advantage. >> reporter: he made shirts with synthetic fabric that would wick away your sweat. he didn't invent the fabric, it was out there, he just made some tight shirts out of it and started giving it to friends in the pros to try out. >> i'll make these shirts up, send a few out. i thought it was going to be easy. the fact of the matter is it doesn't work like that. >> reporter: based out of his grandmother's basement he racked up $40,000 in credit card debt and tens of thousands of driving miles. and a ton of hard work. protecting the house is still the central theme to most o